triple negative breast cancer

Hey Linali,

The end of treatment is very often a tough time for anyone who has been through it. We suddenly go from having medical staff around us a lot of the time to being back at home with none of them and it can feel like we've been cast adrift and we don't know what to do next.

I know I felt very anxious for a time after I completed my treatment. Every ache or pain had me convinced the BC was back and had spread. It took a while of running to the GP every month before I got caught up in the normality of everyday life and began to relax again. I also went for counselling to my local cancer support centre and that helped too.

You can also talk to your oncology team about follow up visits and scans. The breast care nurses should be good to talk to about this. Tell them you worry about cancer returning and you worry about how it would be detected. They should be able to go through your checkup plan with you (usually its every 3 months at first, then every 6 and then every year). And there should be followup mammograms or MRIs also. Having this schedule and knowing you WILL be checked regularly can help. But mostly, its TIME that helps the most - the further away you get from it all, the more secure you feel and the less scary it all seems. I think we just have to go through the motions of 'normal' life at first and after a while we just get caught up in it and it gets easier.

So enjoy that lovely new grandson of yours!

Hugs,
Flo.

hi linali,

i also had tnbc in 2009 and i think this is normal, while you are busy going through treatment you have something to focus on but once its finished panic sets in, afterall you did not feel sick when you were originally diagnosed. this panic does fade over time but i still have the ocassional fit of nerves esp the day before a checkup, they will monitor you closely for the next while, every four months and then will stretch to 6 months as fh2 has said.

the good news for us though being tnbc is that our recurrence risk goes down significantly after two years and again after three and we cannot predict what the future holds so we can only try to move past it. the only advise i can give you is to try focus on something else, for me it was doing up the house and this year it will be my little garden to get it done properly and hopefully reconstruction.

while i was still in treatment i met a women who had bc 20 yrs plus ago and i took it as very positive when she could not remember how many years she was out.

hugs

thanks for that. have my grandson with me at moment no time to worry about myself. will join a support group too as i feel i need to talk to someone not close to me. waiting to see my surgeon and to be given a recovery plan. i have read other posts about delays in reconstruction especially in limerick, so must get in touch with breast nurse. still feeling very tired which is frustrating when i need more energy for my 4 month grandson.

hi again,

yes i am one of the ones waiting on reconstruction in limerick so if you were thinking of having it done, i wd put my name on the list, you can always defer it, if the date comes around too soon.

enjoy the 4 month old grandson, how lovely.

thanks for that. i have been in touch with nurse and then was se[b:3oz53avn]nt appointment for october. was upset because i expected earlier appt as that would be 18 months since surgery. thought i would have more frequent check ups especially as cancer triple negative and aggressive. rang again,nurse very helpful and have appt for consult in early june, then have to go on waiting list. know i should be feeling lucky to have come through treatment, but feeling low at moment. i was a size 36 hh cup pre op and cannot get masectomy bra that fits properly and prosthesis doesnt fit.,[/b:3oz53avn]

I know how it feels for the opposite reason, i was a 36a and the bras have very thick straps and are very large for me and the prosthetic keeps coming above the bra, did you try debenhams in limerick or the underwear shop in killarney outlet or vamp v gd also, limited range but will get a very comfy one for you. i am two yrs out and still waiting on my reconstruction date with no sign of it coming up, no elective surgeries as beds not there and that is private system.

i am going to a c cup with the reconstruction, have gone to 36b on non affected side so decided to get a boob job out of this. they are now doing immediate reconstructions at the same time as mascetomy but with us having so many rads it may not have been an option.

july will fly around and by then they may have beds. there is five ahead of me for the op so pls god it will be before i lose my nerve as in for a lot of pain again,

take care. and keep us posted and we will have our foobs by christmas for our low cut santa outfits.